


An Unexpected Worldhop

by lightningrani



Category: Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Crack Treated Seriously, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Word of Radiance Spoilers, i guess?, my ability to judge these things is falling apart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-25
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 06:48:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5818285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightningrani/pseuds/lightningrani
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shallan and Kaladin somehow end up in our world. Hijinks follow.</p>
<p>Written for the 2015 Shardling Secret Santa, for survivorofhighstorms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Unexpected Worldhop

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr; link to post here: http://shardling-secret-santa.tumblr.com/post/138037009800/an-unexpected-worldhop

It really wasn’t their plan to find a new world on accident, honest.

Shallan had dragged Kaladin to accompany her explorations of Urithiru. It was in great condition, considering how long it had been uninhabited. Shallan believed that the libraries—there had to be libraries in the Radiant’s headquarters—would also be in fine condition, and she would do anything to get her hands on books which have been unaffected by all the purges which have happened in history.

Dalinar wouldn’t let her go by herself, and with Adolin mysteriously gone, the job fell to Kaladin.

“I hope this doesn’t take much time,” Kaladin grumbled under his breath. “I need to check on my family.”

“I don’t think a few minutes is going to make a major change,” replied Shallan blithely. “We have books to find! Isn’t that great?”

“Maybe, if I could read them,” shot back Kaladin. “And it’s not like the books are going to go anywhere, lighteyes. I could have accompanied you on this adventure after I checked up on your family.”

“Which probably would have been months,” Shallan replied testily. “Who knows how many books we would lose to time then?”

They continue to bicker as they walk the hallways. Later, when they returned back, it turned out that they missed a few libraries because of it. They were trying to pay attention—both of them had some diamond chips out to light the way—but, well, arguments get in the way of a lot of things.

In the middle of this bickering, Kaladin stopped and swore. “Storms, what is that thing?”

At the end of the hallway was a portal. It was glowing slightly, making it impossible to see what was on the other side.

“This might be it!” Shallan ran towards the gate in order to get a better view. “We needed to activate a gateway to find Urithiru; why not apply that to the library?”

“But it was already on when we got here,” Kaladin cautioned. “We didn’t do anything to activate it?”

Shallan waved his concern away with her safehand. “Who knows how the technology worked. As far as we know, it could have been activated by our spren. Let’s take a look!”

“That’s not safe,” Kaladin said bluntly. “We have no idea where that goes. No one knows where we are. If we get in trouble, what then?”

Shallan gave him a level look. “We’re Radiants, Kaladin. What’s the worst that can happen?” With that, she walked through the gateway.

“Shallan, wait—” Kaladin rushed through the gateway, only to collide with Shallan on the other side. “Storms, what are you doing?”

Shallan pointed to the weird metal contraption sitting in from of them. “This isn’t a library,” Shallan said flatly.

**

It soon became obvious that this wasn’t Roshar. They had no idea how the contraption in front of them, a gaudy red thing supported by four black wheels, worked. It had multiple doors, but the interior made no sense to them. There was a keyhole, but neither of them had a key.

Wherever they were located, it seemed to be a storage place for these contraptions. A variety of these objects, in all kinds of shapes and colors, were neatly lined up all around them. The ground itself was impossible to understand; it was black and had a texture which was unlike anything either of them had encountered before.

And if they had any doubts, well… When Shallan tried to summon her Shardblade, she failed. All they had in their possession were dun spheres, even accounting for the ones they were using to light their way. Even Kaladin’s eyes were without light, now back to their natural brown. When both of them tried to find their spren, they failed. While Kaladin freaked out in a corner for a bit, Shallan decided to find a return portal or something so they could return back home.

She couldn’t find anything. The portal which they walked through was gone, and now they were stuck here until further notice.

“Maybe we can find someone and they can tell us where to go,” Shallan suggested, poking Kaladin to get his attention.

“And how would they understand us? We’re not on Roshar anymore! They don’t speak our language!”

“We just can’t stand here and wait for something to happen. If we move around, we will get a better understanding of where we are, and with that information, we could figure something out. Let’s move, bridgeboy. We can’t stay here and pout the day away.”

Kaladin shot her a look, but grumpily followed her lead.

It took them some time to figure out how to get out. There were no clear signs, and everything started to look the same after a while. Luckily, Kaladin found a staircase, and they soon found themselves out of the building.

What was in front of them was like nothing they had seen before. The metal contraptions whizzed past them at a speeds which Kaladin and projectiles could only go at. Metal and glass buildings surrounded them, rising to almost-impossible heights. People walked right next to these metal contraptions—most of them looked like the Shin, but there were a few who looked Alethi scattered in the crowd.

But the weirdest thing of all was that no women had a safehand. Not even any of the lighteyes!

“What kind of world is this?” Kaladin said in awe, his eyes stealing glances at all of these uncovered hands. They looked so normal, and yet so enticing at the same time.

Shallan punched him in the shoulder. “Stop leering, bridgeboy. We need to find a way out of here.” She picked a direction and walked with the kind of determination only a brightlady had.

**

Eventually, Shallan decided to stop in front of a large building. She pointed to the large symbols overhead. “Even though this is obviously written in a language I have never studied, I can somehow still understand them. This is a center of some sorts, so there must be people here who can help us.” Sure enough, there were lots of people milling around on the steps.

“It’s so strange, seeing darkeyes and lighteyes mingling like this,” she murmured under her breath. “I can’t imagine anything like this happening back on Roshar.”

Kaladin snorted. “That’s because you lighteyes aren’t willing to try.”

Shallan glared at him. “We’ll have this discussion later, when we’re not stranded on another world.”

Kaladin leaned against a nearby wall and glared back. “No, I think this is a great time. Look at this world, filled with people like us. And look how they can handle these kinds of interactions with no problem. Doesn’t that say something to you?”

“May I remind you no one here is wearing safehands? As far as we know, this could be one of those places!” Shallan hissed.

“It’s not.”

“And how would you know, bridgeboy?”

“Oh, man, nice cosplay!”

Kaladin sighed internally at the interruption. At least now he didn’t need to answer that question.

The person who interrupted them looked like an Alethi, a darkeyes one with black hair. Their clothes were covered with tiny, brightly colored creatures. And they had a big smile on their face.

“I knew that Sanderson was in the area, but I didn’t expect anyone to go all out like you did. Man, those are really accurate cosplays!”

Shallan blinked. “Ah, excuse me?”

“Like, look at you! You look just like Shallan! I love your safehand design; it’s big enough that it makes sense to shove a Soulcaster in there!” Both of them stared at the person in utter confusion, but the person went on, turning to address Kaladin. “And man, you are really dedicated if you went to all the trouble of getting that glyph right. Would you mind if I took a picture?”

Kaladin was the first one to move. “Yes,” he said, grabbing Shallan’s hand as he ran away from the now very confused person.

“Thank you for asking!” Shallan yelled back in their direction.

**

After running for a few minutes, and somehow avoid getting hit by the contraptions which their encountered during their escape, Kaladin eventually stopped in a small alley.

“Storms, what were you thinking? We could have asked that person for more details,” Shallan hissed.

“They knew who we were, to the point that they recognized us! What kind of world is this? Though they must have gotten some things wrong—you never had a Soulcaster, of course.”

Shallan stayed silent.

“… When did you have a Soulcaster?”

“That’s not important,” Shallan said hurriedly. “What is important is that they mentioned a name. Sanderson, they said. Whoever that person is, they might know how to get us back.”

“This is so bizarre,” muttered Kaladin, rubbing his glyph in exasperation.

“It’s our best lead,” Shallan insisted. “What other choice do we have?”

“We need to avoid detection again,” Kaladin pointed out. “We have to hide our distinctive features. Otherwise, we’ll continue to end up in situations like the previous one.” Kaladin looked around the area and found a hat, which he stuck on his head.

Shallan frowned. “What’s a Yankee?”

“That’s not important. See? My glyph is covered. I’ll fit in. In your case…”

“Oh, no no no! I am not taking off my safehand! What kind of person do you think I am?”

“A glove, then. That should be less distinctive.”

Shallan deflated a bit. “Fine. Where are we going to find one?”

Kaladin shrugged and pointed to a pile of clothes lying the corner. “That’s where I found my hat. You might be able to find something here.”

“Those don’t look very clean.”

“We don’t have a choice, lighteyes. Pick something up and then we can go and find that man.”

“Fine. But don’t look.”

Kaladin shrugged and turned around to give her some privacy. At this point, he was starting to get desensitized to the whole thing. Seeing so many safehands exposed like that made them less interesting. Seeing Shallan’s wouldn’t mean much to him now. But it still mattered to her.

Grumbling the whole time, Shallan eventually came back with glittery pink gloves shoved onto both of her hands. “Do you think this will work?”

Kaladin’s mouth twitched into something which could be considered a smile. “Yes.”

“Fine. Let’s find this man and get out of this place for once and for all.”

**

They expected this man to some sort of scientist, located in a lab with portals surrounding him.

They didn’t expect to find him in a bookstore.

“He hasn’t said anything useful,” Kaladin muttered into Shallan’s ear. A whole crowd of people were in the area, listening to a bespectacled man talk about Reckoners or something like that. Apparently, he wrote this book, which was surprising enough, and it takes place in a world unlike the one they were standing in.

Kaladin wasn’t really sure why someone would write books about different worlds if they could see what was happening. Why weren’t people rallying to help these individuals?

“Just wait,” Shallan replied. She hadn’t told Kaladin that out of the corner of her eye, she had seen a picture which looked somewhat like him. And when she took a closer look, she recognized the title of the book. Why would this world have multiple copies of what the Radiants said just sitting here? And this man said that he wrote it? And why would Kaladin be on the cover?

Nothing made sense, but he was their best lead on getting out of here. He would have to mention something.

Kaladin grunted. “I’m going to look around. We might have missed something.” Before Shallan could stop him, he started to walk through the shelves.

Shallan rolled her eyes. They already looked around when they first entered. What was the purpose of looking around again?

She turned her attention back to the man. If they were on Roshar, she would think he was an ardent. Maybe he was. After all, he was quite intelligent. It was obvious he spent time researching about these topics to produce the work that he did.

“Now, let’s open the floor up to questions.” Apparently this Sanderson person had reached the end of his speech, and was going to answer audience questions.  Hands shot up into the air, and man seemed to pick one at random.”

“Yes, person in the back?”

“Is there anything you can tell us about Stormlight 3?”

Shallan frowned. Stormlight 3? Were they talking about the Roshar books which she found in the area? But why were they called Stormlight?

“Shallan!”

Turning around, she was surprised to see Kaladin waving frantically at her. “The portal! It’s back! We need to go now!”

No more time to think about what was happening here. It was time to go home.

**

They tumbled through the portal, roughly landing in the halls of Urithiru. Pattern started to climb all over Shallan, asking questions about where she went, and Syl swirled around Kaladin worriedly.

“We’re back, thank Stormfather,” Kaladin groaned.

“Where did you go? We found the library and we waited for you, but you never appeared,” Syl said with concerned.

Shallan frowned. “Wait, what do you mean?”

Syl pointed in the direction they came. “The library was back there. When you disappeared, we thought you had found it.”

“You mean, we walked past the library?” Kaladin said slowly.

Syl shrugged. “You were arguing a lot.”

Kaladin pushed himself upward, grabbed the hat off his head, and glared at Shallan.

“Neither of us noticed!” Shallan said hurriedly, taking off the gloves and swiftly putting back on her safehand. “You can’t blame me.”

“If someone didn’t go through the portal in the first place, we would have turned around and found it.”

“You don’t know that!”

Kaladin shook his head. “When will I learn not to follow lighteyes blindly?” he said as he turned around to head for the library.

“Stop being hypocritical yourself. You’re a lighteyes now too, remember?” Shallan shouted back to no avail. When he ignored her, she sighed and got up. Might as well explore the library now that they were down here. Maybe it would tell her more about the world that they were in.

Maybe it would tell her how to get back, and talk to this Sanderson man. He knew a lot about Roshar, and during this time, they needed all the knowledge they could get.

 

 


End file.
